Territory
__NOEDITSECTION__ Territory is one out of seven modules that make up the Off-Screen System. Intro= __NOEDITSECTION__ Territory is a system in the game that serves as a method of non-violent struggle, a means of controlling the blood-supply, and a way to be on top of and interact with plot. Controlling territory means you are able to use the full bonus of all sites in the territory, feed from the blood pool, and establish your own laws. The City page lists all the territories in Kingsmouth, including their regents and modifiers. 'Central concepts' : Kingpin: The person who 'owns' the territory. : Attitude caps the total possible value of modifiers, and apply a bonus or penalty to all Off-Screen Actions. : Modifiers determine the value of a territory, and apply a bonus or penalty to relevant Off-Screen actions. : Control rating: The control rating of a territory equals the sum of the following modifiers: Feeding Pool, Access, Safety, Ignorance, Information, Prestige, and Stability. Treat all modifiers as positive for this purpose. Example: Outskirts has the following modifiers: Feeding Pool 1, Access -3, Safety +2, Information -3, Ignorance -2, Prestige +1, Stability +3 - adding these up gives us a Control Rating of 15. : Face: A measure of how influential a character is in a territory. If the territory has no kingpin, a character with Face equal to the control rating of the territory becomes the new kingpin. To unseat a kingpin, the Kindred must either gain control over them (by buying them as a retainer, for example, or killing them to death), or reduce their Face to 0. : Crisis: Can come into play both naturally and by characters turning exploits into crises. Generating a crisis naturally is the result of a five die pool, modified by the stability of the territory, with each success creating a crisis during a random portion of the month (a percentage roll handles placement during the month). Every crisis has a rating between 1 (little) and 5 (huge). When a crisis comes into play, its rating is reduced from the current kingpin's Face. If no sitting kingpin exists, new crises act as a cap on the Face that can be gained in the territory. Solving a crisis earns that character Face equal to its rating. To uncover a crisis, see the 'Investigate' tab. : Finesse: A Finesse roll is Manipulation + Socialize + Social modifier - Ignorance modifier. Each success on these finesse rolls adds 1 to the current face rating. Willpower and Disciplines CANNOT be used with Finesse rolls. 'Claiming Territory: A quick and dirty guide' * Decide if you want territory. Many characters neither want nor need it. * Playstyle: Be a Political or Support player. Civilians can't have territory. * Choose your territory. There are lots. * Unseat the current kingpin by either gaining control over them or by fomenting crises. * Investigate the territory to learn about the crises that are active in the territory. * Solve crises to earn Face. If there are no more crises, do Finesse rolls to gain the necessary Face. * Bathe in the adulation of your fellow Kindred. Also, be held responsible for anything that happens in that territory in the future. If there's a Masquerade breach there, it's your fault! With great power comes great responsibility. 'Keeping Territory' * Investigate periodically to see if any new crises have arisen. If they have, solve them. * Patrol your territory to defend it against attackers. 'Handing territory over' * A territory may be handed over peacefully only if there are no active crises. The existing Kingpin rolls teamwork to help you Finesse the territory. Any successes rolled on Finesse count double. |-|Investigate= __NOEDITSECTION__ 'Action' : Action: Extended and Threshold : Time: Investigation costs 1 hour to begin, and takes 2 hours per die roll, time paid in advance : Dicepool: ::Wits + Investigation + Auspex + Information modifier (Low) ::Wits + Empathy + Auspex + Information modifier (Moderate) ::Wits + Streetwise/Politics + Auspex + Information modifier (High) ::You may also add half your dots for any of the following disciplines: Animalism, Dominate, Majesty, or Protean : Command: +request Investigate (Thing)= : Modifiers: Sites, Resource Points, Territory : Teamwork: Yes You can investigate territory to see who has a haven there (but not where it is), to see what crises are active, to see who has been feeding there within the last (successes) days, or to discover what other activity there has been in the territory. When investigating for crises, you get one piece of information for every three successes unless you are the Kingpin, in which case you get one piece of information for every two successes. A wise regent investigates periodically to see if any problems have cropped up in their region - preferably before little problems become great big problems. If the territory is claimed by another Kindred, Cacophany Savvy adds 1 die to any rolls to find exploits. When investigating the actions or holdings of other characters, you require successes equal to the higher of their dots in Streetwise, Stealth, or Subterfuge + Obfuscate. If they actively covered up the action, you require successes equal to their dots in Streetwise/Stealth/Subterfuge + Obfuscate + successes on the Cover Up roll. Example: +request Investigate Sagecroft=I'm spending five hours investigating Sagecroft, using Wits + Streetwise. I believe my dicepool is 8 (Wits 3 + Streetwise 2 + Auspex 1 + Information 2). I'd like to know what crises are currently there, whether anyone else has been investigating there, and who has been feeding in the area, in that order. ''Vampire Bill rolls 6 successes. There are no crises, so the storyteller then looks to the next question. Has anyone else been investigating? Yes, Debonair Rival has! What's his Stealth/Streetwise + Obfuscate? 4. Therefore, it takes 4 successes for Vampire Bill to learn that Debonair Rival has also been investigating in Sagecroft. If there had been a crisis, the first 3 successes would have gone to uncovering that, leaving three remaining. This wouldn't be enough to uncover Debonair Rival's activities, so the storyteller would tell Vampire Bill he finds no evidence of anyone else investigating the area.' |-| Crises= __NOEDITSECTION__ 'Create/solve a crisis' : Action: varies depending on the Crisis. Can be Simple, Contested, Resisted, Extended, Threshold, or a combination. : Time: 12 hours. For Extended crises, 12 hours + 4 hours/roll : Dicepool: varies, depending on the crisis; Attribute + Skill (+ Discipline, if appropriate) (+ relevant site bonus) (+ bribery) + your Influence modifier; +/- attitude and territory traits; +2 if you created the crisis yourself. : Command: +request Solve/create crisis in territory = : Modifiers: Sites, Resource Points, Territory, Primacy : Teamwork: Yes Things to note: *Your 'base' dicepool is Attribute + Skill + Discipline + Site. Influence, Bribery, and Territory traits are conditional modifiers. Conditional modifiers may never exceed +/-5. Teamwork dice are not counted as conditional modifiers. *Bribery represents throwing your money around, but not always literal bribery. 0 RP gives +0; 1 RP gives +1; 4 RP gives +2; 10 RP gives +3; 20 RP gives +4; 40 RP gives +5. This bonus applies to a single roll only. *Civilian characters are in no way banned from getting involved with plot. This may, on occasion, lead them to solving a crisis. In such cases, no Face is earned by anyone. *Using Influence gives a certain number of automatic successes on the Teamwork action. For example, calling in a favor from your Level 4 police allies gives you 4 teamwork dice. Expediting things with your two dots of Bureaucracy Status gives you 2 teamwork dice. As always, using more than one form of Influence (such as a Retainer and Allies, or two Retainers) costs Juice. *Retainers may not solve crises on their own, but may roll teamwork. If they have the relevant Skill as a tag, they roll double their dicepool. Otherwise, they simply roll their dicepool. *Teamwork on an extended roll requires the team to spend downtime only for the roll they are contributing to: they do not need to pay the base 12 hour cost. Types of actions: :A SIMPLE action requires one success. :A CONTESTED action requires that you beat the crisis' roll (X vs Y). It rolls twice its Rating in dice. :A RESISTED action applies the crisis Rating as a penalty to your dicepool (X - Y). You need only one success. :An EXTENDED action requires a specified number of successes. You may make as many rolls as your Attribute + Skill + Specialty. If you have the Patient Merit, you may roll an additional two times. Each roll takes an additional 4 hours (or two hours with the Good Time Management Merit). :A THRESHOLD action requires successes equal to or in excess of its rating. Therefore, a Rating 4 crisis requires 4 successes. 'Example' Vampire Bill investigated the territory and got the following information: '':CRISIS: Stitch-Happy Surgeons Rating: 5 (Extended, 15 successes) Event: The rate of exploratory surgery at the Congregational Hospital in Central Hill is considerably higher than is typical, and there have been repeated cases where patients have been subjected to unnecessary surgery while under general anesthetic, including removing organs. Never in a life threatening manner, but rather a piece of the liver (which regenerates), one kidney (they have another), the appendix or gall bladder (which it's entirely possible to live without) - even sections of intestine. Now they're developing a class action suit, and filing charges. Methods: Manipulation + Academics (Law) + 5 to sue the Hospital and get justice for the patients (High); Presence + Intimidation to get the patients to keep quiet about it (Moderate); Wits + Larceny - 3 to cover up the evidence (Low). ''Vampire Bill decides to be a good guy and attack this crisis with the law. His Manipulation + Academics pool is only 3 dice, he gets a +5 territory modifier for his approach, he has an Influence modifier of +3, and he has a +2 Academics site in one of his territories. Has this turned his dicepool of 3 into 13 dice? No, not quite. His basic dicepool (Attribute + Skill + Specialty + Discipline + Site/Equipment) is 5. The conditional modifiers cap out at +5, so he has a total of 10 dice. ''Solving this crisis will cost Vampire Bill a minimum of 12 hours of his Downtime, plus 4 hours per roll because it is an extended action. Because Vampire Bill has the Good Time Management merit, this is reduced to 2 hours per roll. On his first roll he gets 4 successes. He spends another 2 hours to get another 3 successes, for a total of 7. He needs to get 8 successes on his third and final roll (because he cannot roll more times than his Attribute + Skill + Specialty), and 8 successes on 10 dice is extraordinarily unlikely. Vampire Bill calls in a level 3 favor from his Legal Allies to make sure that the rascals at the hospital are convicted quickly. Since Vampire Bill has Allies (Legal) 4, this favor gives him a Teamwork bonus of 4, allowing him to roll 14 dice instead of 10 for that final roll. He also phones a friend with far more Academics than he has, and consults with her. She rolls her Manipulation + Academics with Vampire Bill's +2 site bonus (because of course he gives her access to the site for the purpose), invests four hours helping him, and rolls 6 successes. That gives Vampire Bill a total of 20 dice for his third roll - hopefully enough to roll the 8 successes he still needs to solve the crisis and raise his Face in the territory by 5 points. |-| Finesse= __NOEDITSECTION__ 'Finesse' : '''Action': Simple : Time: 10 hours : Dicepool: Manipulation + Socialize + Primacy mod. + territory's Social - territory's Ignorance modifiers. : Command: +request Finesse = : Modifiers: Sites, Resource Points, Territory, Primacy : Teamwork: Yes When all Crises in a territory are solved, prospective Kingpins can make 10-hour downtime actions to finesse the territory with a Manipulation + Socialize (High) roll. The territory's Social and Ignorance modifiers apply. High Social is good; high Ignorance is bad. Each success on these finesse rolls adds 1 to the current face rating, and the first one to score the required successes wins. Note that the Kingpin must take the lead on the action, though other characters may supply Teamwork for extra dice. |-| Defend= __NOEDITSECTION__ 'Action' : Action: Simple/Contested : Time: 7 hours (Weekly) : Dicepool: None/Wits + Streetwise - Ignorance : Command: +request Patrol (territory)= : Modifiers: Sites, Resource Points : Teamwork: No (but can be done by Retainers) Defending a territory takes 7 downtime hours. While these are paid up front (when the action is put in) they remove one maximum hour from each day instead of costing seven hours in the first day, to represent patrolling the territory. Defending a territory lasts seven days from when the action is placed. Providing a character is Defending a territory, they are immediately informed of any actions that fail to gain sufficient successes for their Risk level. (High risk requires 3 successes; Moderate risk requires 2 successes; Low risk requires 1 success. This applies to whether or not someone watching is automatically information, not to what is required for the action itself to be successful.) In addition to this, when a character defends a territory they immediately contest all risked actions with a Wits + Streetwise - territory Ignorance roll. (As is always the case in math, two negatives make a positive, so if Ignorance is -2 the roll is at +2.) If the roll equals or exceeds the Wits + Streetwise/Stealth + Obfuscate + Access roll of the acting character, the scene zooms down to the on-screen level. Anyone assisting the defender/actor is immediately present. Otherwise the scene is LOCKED and only the defender/group and actor/group may engage in the scene. Contact happens DURING the hours spent by the acting character. If the acting character is not warded off, the acting character's actions continue. If the acting character is warded off, half the time of the halted action is lost. Actively patrolling one's territory is an excellent way to keep events from coming up due to the interference of other active groups. Note that this will not inform you of new crises arising naturally - for that you need to investigate. Example: Vampire Bill is defending his territory. Debonair Rival decides to Investigate it, wanting to find Vampire Bill's Haven. All methods of investigation have a Risk threshold, requiring 1, 2, or 3 successes to go unnoticed. If Debonair Rival rolls under this threshold, Vampire Bill is immediately informed that Debonair Rival has been active in his territory. ''Regardless of the threshold, the storyteller rolls Wits + Streetwise - Ignorance on behalf of Vampire Bill, and Wits + Streetwise/Stealth + Obfuscate + Access on behalf of Debonair Rival. If Vampire Bill wins, as the defender, he is able to catch Debonair Rival in the act, zooming down onto the on-screen level. If Debonair Rival wins, as the actor, he is able to finish up his business and leave the territory without getting caught, though Vampire Bill may still hear about his activity. |-| Attack= __NOEDITSECTION__ 'Attack' : Action: Resisted and Extended : Time: 12 hours + 4 hours per roll : Dicepool: Varies, depending on what is being done. Some examples include: ::Strength + Brawl/Weaponry + (half Protean) to lower Safety (High) ::Manipulation + Politics + Majesty/Dominate to get a city-owned site shut down (High) ::Manipulation + Animal Ken + Animalism to infest a restaurant with rats and get it shut down (Moderate) ::Intelligence + Science + Obfuscate to construct and place a bomb that will destroy a building (Low) ::Dots in Nightmare may always be added to Territory Attacks. : Command: +request Attack (Territory) :Modifiers: Sites, Resource Points, Territory, Primacy :Teamwork: Yes Attacking territory results in shutting down sites and lowering territory traits. This takes a number of successes equal to five times the site maximum, or five times the new territory trait. (IE: lowering the safety of a territory from -3 to -4 takes 20 successes) |-| Change= __NOEDITSECTION__ 'Changing territory traits' The Attitude of the territory caps how good (or bad) it can become. :Accepting: 10 to 13 points. Gives +3 to Mental, -3 to Physical, and +3 to Social OSS Actions. :Drowsy: 6 to 9 points. Gives +1 to Mental, -1 to Physical, and +1 to Social OSS Actions. :Calm: 2 to 5 points. Gives no modifier to OSS Actions. :Wary: -3 to 1 points. Gives +1 to Mental, -1 to Physical, and +3 to Social OSS Actions. :Simmering: -7 to -4 points. Gives +0 to Mental, -2 to Physical, and -2 to Social OSS Actions. :Unruly: -10 to -8 points. Gives -3 to Mental, -3 to Physical, and -1 to Social OSS Actions. :Riotous: -13 to -11 points. Gives -5 to Mental, -4 to Physical, and -3 to Social OSS Actions. Special Attitudes These attitudes are both extreme and temporary. :Welcoming: 14 or more points. Gives +5 to Mental, -5 to Physical, and +5 to Social OSS Actions. :Antagonistic: -14 or less points. Gives -3 to Mental, -5 to Physical, and -5 to Social OSS Actions. These attitudes are due to inactivity or inaccessibility. :Dead: Points irrelevant. Gives -5 to Mental, +3 to Physical, and +3 to Social OSS Actions. :Isolated: Points irrelevant. Gives +3 to Mental, +3 to Physical, and -3 to Social OSS Actions. To calculate the value of a territory, add up the following modifiers: Access, Safety, Information, Ignorance, Prestige, and Stability. Traits may be changed within that cap. Thus, if the territory is currently Drowsy with a value of 8 points, the Kingpin can raise a single trait by 1. If she wishes to raise more than one trait, however, or by more than that, she must either lower another trait to stay within the point cap OR change the attitude of the territory. : Action: Extended : Time: 8 hours per roll : Dicepool: Varies, depending on what is being done. Some examples include: ::Strength + Brawl/Weaponry + (half Protean) to lower Safety by increasing the crime rate; ::Manipulation + Politics to raise Access by getting roadworks done; ::Manipulation + Empathy to raise Stability by getting people listening to and caring about their neighbors; ::Dexterity + Crafts to raise Prestige by creating and installing public artworks. : Command: +request Change (Territory) (trait) = :Modifiers: Sites, Resource Points, Territory, Primacy :Teamwork: Yes This takes a number of successes equal to five times the new territory trait, to a minimum of 1 success. (IE: raising the Stability of a territory from -3 to -2 takes 10 successes; raising it from -1 to 0 takes 1 success.) Raising the amount of blood available in a territory requires the purchase of the Feeding Ground merit. 'Changing the Attitude' : Action: Extended : Time: 24 hours + 8 hours per roll : Dicepool: Varies, depending on what is being done, but is always Wits, Intelligence, or Manipulation-based. ::If you are shifting the attitude in a positive direction, you may add your Dominate or Majesty dots to the roll. :If you are shifting the Atmosphere in a negative direction, you may add your Dominate, Nightmare, or Obfuscate dots to the roll. :If you are shifting the Atmosphere toward the middle (Calm), you may add your Animalism dots to the roll. :Command: +request Change (Territory) (trait) = :Modifiers: Sites, Resource Points, Territory, Primacy :Teamwork: Yes To change the attitude (giving you a different trait cap) you must create an appropriate event. This requires 24 hours of downtime to set up, and then 8 hours per roll (the latter of which is halved by Good Time Management). Changing the atmosphere of a territory requires successes equal to the sum of the differences between the modifiers of the old atmosphere and the new atmosphere. For example, changing the atmosphere from Unruly (Mental -3, Physical -3, Social -1) to Riotous (Mental -5, Physical -4, Social -3) requires 5 successes (2 difference in Mental, 1 in Physical, and 2 in Social). The math is done for you on the Attitudes tab. Atmosphere can only be changed one step up or down the scale at a time. It may also be shifted by Crises. 'New sites' Creating new sites requires multiple actions from multiple influence areas. To create a new site requires 3 + rating actions at one level higher than the rating, and then rating - 1 actions at its own level, rating - 2 actions at the level below, and so on. Each action must be appropriate to the type of site. These actions may come from favors, status, or services (which may be purchased with resource points at a cost of the level squared. Therefore, a level 1 action costs 1 RP, a level 2 action costs 4 RP, a level 3 action costs 9 RP, a level 4 action costs 16 RP, and a level 5 action costs 25 RP). For example, let's create a hospital with Medicine 4 (making the site rating 4). We need: 3 + 4 actions at level 5: Three Health 5 actions to get staff and supplies from around the country, a Bureaucracy 5 action to get the licensing, a Politics 5 action for zoning, a Legal 5 action for insurance and counsel, and a Finance 5 action to set up the funding necessary to get it running. 3 actions at level 4: A Finance 4 action to set up the insurance payments, a Finance 4 action to set up the payroll, and a High Society 4 action to throw a fund-raiser and get wealthy beneficiaries involved. 2 actions at level 3: A Transportation 3 action to get the ambulances, and a Bureaucracy 3 action to set the hospital up on a separate power grid. 1 action at level 2: A Church 2 action to get a religious councilor on site for the grieving. Putting the site into play requires a minimum of one week per rating, so the above example would take 4 weeks. If you are creating a Feeding Ground you must buy the Feeding Ground Merit in addition to the above. It is protected as per usual for Sanctity of Merits. |-| Cover Up= __NOEDITSECTION__ 'Cover Up' If you really don't want to get found out, you can Cover Up after your action. In the case of Territory, this usually applies to Investigation and Attack actions. :Action: None/Contested :Time: 7 hours :Dicepool: ::Manipulation + Subterfuge + (half Majesty) (Moderate) ::Wits + Streetwise + (half Protean) + (half Majesty) (Low) ::Wits + Larceny + (half Protean) (Low) ::You may add your dots in Dominate, Nightmare, and Obfuscate, as well as your dots in the Alternate Identity Merit :Command: +request Cover-up (Action)= :Modifiers: Sites, Resource Points :Teamwork: Yes Covering Up after an action adds your successes to the threshold of discovery when someone Investigates. |-| Modifiers = __NOEDITSECTION__ Access: Access is the Physical-Interactive territory trait. This trait describes how easy it is to get into or out of the District, or to move around within it. Positive modifiers describe a neighborhood with ample cabs, a working subway or elevated train, bus lines, easy-to-navigate roads, reasonable traffic and street signs. Negative modifiers describe a neighborhood with no sidewalks, no passing cabs, no local subway station (or a lousy one), inconsistent buses, bad or broken roads, constant construction, missing signage and the like. :How does Access affect me? If combat begins in a scene, the territory's Access controls the minimum number of rounds before others may join that scene. -5 Access is 10 rounds; +0 Access is 5 rounds, +5 Access is without delay. Safety: Safety is the Physical-Reactive territory trait. This trait describes the likelihood of getting hurt within the District — whether you’re a stranger or a local. A District with positive Safety modifiers has locks on the doors, maybe bars on the windows, a reasonable expectation that the police will come if called, streetlights and so forth. A District with Safety penalties may be ramshackle, low-rent, behind the times or otherwise vulnerable; or it could simply be rife with thugs, drug-seekers, maniacs, wild dogs, bloodthirsty monsters and other dangerous creatures who believe they can hurt people and get away with it in this part of town. Consider how the Safety and Stability traits can interact, too: a highly stable neighborhood might not lock its doors, because it doesn't fear its neighbors, while a block caught in the middle of a gang war might be heavily patrolled by police (for a positive Safety rating) but still ready to explode (due to its negative Stability). :How does Safety affect me? Safety is a penalty if you're feeding as a Mugger, but it also influences the safety of your Haven. Information: Information is the Mental-Interactive territory trait. The Information trait describes the volume or quality of information that can be gotten about the District from within the District. A neighborhood with a good Information rating has a local newspaper, kiosks with pinned-up flyers, posters for local events, community representatives, talkative passersby, a website, ATMs and/or public Internet access. If the locals are in touch with each other and have a strong sense of what’s happening in the community, the place has a positive Information trait — though they may still be unwilling to talk with outsiders if they have a poor Stability or Safety trait. A neighborhood with a lousy Information modifier is barren and dead to the eyes and ears: street signs may be missing, stores have signs that say only GAS or CHECKS CASHED, people avoid asking each other questions and they certainly don’t give out information to strangers who come nosing around. :How does Information affect me? Whether trying to take a territory or trying to maintain it, you'll want to investigate for issues that have arisen in the area. Ignorance: Ignorance is the Mental-Reactive territory trait. Ignorance is tied to Information, but is not dependent on it. Although a District theoretically needs with high Ignorance tends to be poorly-informed, that’s not necessarily the case. Information is the trait that benefits from Town Hall meetings, while Ignorance is the trait that benefits from poor lighting and a obscured views. Dark, crowded Districts littered with junk, where stained windows, long shadows and the drone of constant highway traffic overhead make it hard to see or hear, have high Ignorance. The locals might want to call the cops on the blood-seeking freak creeping around in the alley behind their garages, but they can’t if they don’t know he’s there. Districts with quality streetlights, motion-sensitive bulbs, good sight-lines and a quiet ambiance have low Ignorance ratings. The people in these places are likely to notice someone climbing up the fire escape across the street, though they may not be involved enough to call the cops. :How does Ignorance affect me? Ignorance is a bonus if you're feeding as a Sandman. It also makes it less likely anyone will notice that you're never seen during the day, and come to think of it you never seen to get any older... It does, however, apply as a penalty to Finessing the territory. Prestige: Prestige is the Social-Interactive territory trait. This trait may be tricky to understand, if only because it is not actually concerned with Prestige, per se. Rather, this trait describes how well regarded a neighborhood is, even if it is not actually prestigious. A District that is well-known, but reviled, has a high negative modifier in this trait. A neighborhood that "you know, seems okay, but I don’t know what it’s called," has a very low but positive modifier in this trait. The higher the number, the greater the impact on people who are told about the place or taken there — the greater the draw and the further away its known. Positive numbers attract people, negative numbers keep them away. Consider how this trait is separate from Information, Safety and Stability: A place may be unsafe, unruly and poorly documented and still attract people to it. Maybe they come for the cheap drugs or the pussy, maybe they come for the novelty or the nightclubs, maybe they come for some last great restaurant holding out in the ruins of a once-great neighborhood. The point is, they come. :How does Prestige affect me? As well as being your boasting factor, Prestige determines how many laws you may set for your territory. Stability: Stability is the Social-Reactive territory trait. Stability describes the feeling of community in the District, how likely locals are to come to each other’s aid or turn their backs on the suffering going on outside their windows. A District with a positive Stability modifier gives a shit about its neighbors, calls the police when it hears gunshots or comes running when there’s a fire. A District with a negative Stability modifier is eerily still and quiet and stays that way even while some kid is bleeding to death in the street from the bullet in his gut. Consider the ways this trait interacts with Safety. A neighborhood may be unsafe but defiantly maintaining its identity and camaraderie in the face of a drug war. A neighborhood may be well patrolled and generally law-abiding, but populated with coldly removed residents who figure it’s none of their business why the people next door are squeezing off automatic weapons. In a neighborhood that’s unsafe but stable, homeowners might shoot you themselves if you fuck with the block. In a neighborhood that’s unsafe and unstable, the neighbor who rushes to your side after you’re shot might just be there to loot your shit. :How does Stability affect me? Stability is a penalty if you're feeding as a Casanova, who tend to prefer specific Feeding Grounds like nightclubs to trolling the streets looking for strange. Most importantly, though, it determines the frequency with which new issues arise in the territory. Attitude: Each territory has an atmosphere determined by its default state, and the actions that have had an impact on it. Dead, Isolated, Welcoming, Accepting, Drowsy, Calm, Wary, Simmering, Unruly, Simmering, and Antagonistic attitudes are all possible. Attitude modifiers apply to extended actions and off-screen actions only. :How does Attitude affect me? See the next tab! |-| Attitude= __NOEDITSECTION__ Each territory has an Attitude that reflects how responsive the people are to certain types of influence. It provides a modifier to off-screen actions in the territory. See the tab "Growing territory" for information on how you can change the attitude. :: Welcoming (14+ points): ''Mental +5, Physical -5, Social +5.'' Underground raves, meetings of secret societies, impromptu drum circles, biker gatherings - some require invitations and some are simply infused with an impressive amount of faith and trust in humanity, but once you're there you're assumed to be welcome. Welcome, at least, as long as the values of the locals are upheld. The environment can turn rapidly ugly if a slight is committed. :: Accepting (10 to 13 points): ''Mental +3, Physical -3, Social +3.'' Tend toward understanding and support in the face of unexpected behavior, and are not easily altered by the actions of others. Along with that, however, comes a close eye on all those present, which makes it difficult to sneak around or inflict harm upon others without being discovered. (2 successes to increase to Welcoming, or 10 to decrease to Drowsy.) :: Drowsy (6 to 9 points): ''Mental +1, Physical -1, Social +1. Most folks here know one another and are generally accepting of outsiders so long as they look and act relatively normally. Neighbors don't actively watch out for one another so much as they're likely to notice when something unusual happens through sheer proximity. ''(8 successes to increase to Accepting, or decrease to Calm.) :: Calm (2 to 5 points): ''Mental +0, Physical +0, Social +0. An area that could swing toward aggression or alarm if given significant impetus, but is inclined to remain steady until something pushes it in either direction. Behavior and responses are reasonable, and outsiders are judged on their actions and not their familiarity. ''(5 successes required to increase to Drowsy or decrease to Wary.) :: Wary (-3 to 1 point): ''Mental +1, Physical -1, Social +3. The people here are on guard, though not against anything in particular. They tend to be too wrapped up in their own problems to pay attention to each other or to outsiders. They're wary and generally know how to take care of themselves - they don't expect anyone else to do the job. ''(8 successes required to increase to Calm, or 4 to decrease to Simmering.) :: Simmering (-7 to -4 points): ''Mental +0, Physical -2, Social -2. There's a pervasive feeling of angst and uncertainty, which either leads people to take to the streets to find out what's happening, or to shut themselves up in their houses. Violence is not generally evident, but it wouldn't take much to cause it. ''(9 successes to increase to Wary, 2 successes to decrease to Unruly.) :: Unruly (-10 to -8 points): ''Mental -3, Physical -3, Social -1. The people here are angry or concerned about something, though they may not be unified in their behavior or motives. Violence is common, as is property destruction. ''(10 successes to increase to Simmering, 3 successes to decrease to Riotous.) :: Riotous (-13 to -11 points): ''Mental -5, Physical -4, Social -3. All semblance of civilization has been lost in the extremity and urgency of people's reactions. Some take to the streets, some cower indoors, some attempt to flee. There are mobs, but rarely a specific target. ''(10 successes to increase to Unruly or decrease to Antagonistic.) :: Antagonistic (-14 or fewer points): ''Mental -3, Physical -5, Social -5. Local residents are united by a common cause. They may barricade themselves in and protect their own, or they may actively seek out and attack whomever they feel to be the cause of their problems. They are organized, determined, and deadly. ''An area cannot be moved from this position until and unless the triggering circumstances are dealt with. :: Additionally: :: Dead (points irrelevant): ''Mental -5, Physical +3, Social +3.'' Aside from a few night watchmen, transients, and scavengers, there's just no-one here. Those few who are tend to be drunk, high, or insane, making them easy to manipulate or take physical advantage of. This Attitude cannot be changed without prolonged and extraordinary effort. :: Isolated (points irrelevant): ''Mental +3, Physical +3, Social -3. ''The people here are far out of reach of their fellow mortals, and far from significant aid. Downtown business districts or sprawling industrial complexes are a good example, where there is daytime activity but a tendency for them to be abandoned at night, and therefore very hard for vampires to interact with. ''Like a Dead area, this Attitude is almost impossible to change. '' Category:Territory Category:Off-Screen System